How Languages Change

Abraham moved several times to different countries, which was appropriate considering he was to become the father of a nation (Israel) which was to be "scattered" (Eze. 6:8) throughout all nations, like "salt" used as a seasoning (Mat. 5:13). These relocations required him to adopt several different languages, at least as many as five, and perhaps more. Isaac lived all of his life in Canaan, but Jacob lived in Harran (in Syria) for 20 years with Laban's family and he lived the last 17 years of his life in Egypt. Jacob's sons and their descendants lived in Egypt about 215 years. They spent an additional 40 years in the Arabian wilderness before the younger generation was allowed to enter Canaan. From Abraham's birth (c. 1996 BC) to the conquering of (most of) Canaan was approximately 570 years. How much can languages change in 570 years?

As an example, let us look at the English language. After all, the history of Britain, from the end of Roman rule (c. 4th century AD) until the island was (mostly) unified under one king, is not all that different from the history of Canaan after the invasion of the Israelites. They are both histories of almost continual wars, invasions, conquests and rule by foreign powers, not to mention civil wars and internal power struggles. If one does not object to the Anglo/Israel doctrine, what we have is some of the Hebrew-speaking people of the 10 "scattered tribes" of Israel (721 BC) coming into Britain starting near the end of the 4th century AD. Only now, they are speaking a number of languages other than Hebrew.

What is Old English?

"The term "Old English" describes a number of dialects in use on the isle of Britain from about AD 400 to 1100. This corresponds roughly to the period between the Saxon and Norman invasions. The Anglo-Saxon alphabet is composed of the Roman alphabet plus æ (like the vowel in hat), dedh (TH sound in thorn) and wen which sounded like, and was later replaced by, the letter W."
(Source: Article, "Ye Old English Bible", Electronic Old English Texts of Biblical Literature, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA.)

"The OE period extends from the earliest records in the Germanic language known as Old English to the early twelfth century. The Norman Conquest in 1066 is often taken as the [ending date] because that battle allowed the Norman-French-speaking William to take the English throne, and the subsequent political importance of French gave it the kind of importance it needed to bring about major linguistic changes in the language, so that by the thirteenth century, Old English had evolved into Middle English."
(Source: "Anglo Saxon Bibliography", Old English Online Editions, West Virginia University.)

"According to the Venerable Bede, the first significant body of Germanic settlers in England had been hired as mercenaries by the British Prince Vortigern during fifth-century struggles for power among British Celts that broke out when Roman colonial troops were withdrawn. After a falling-out with their employer, these Germanic warriors seized British territory in the south of England for themselves and brought their families over the English Channel to settle it. Archaeological evidence also reveals a gradual infiltration of Germanic peoples into England along the rivers of east central England, then a low-lying bayou country that would have been impossible to police."

"Bede tells us that the Germanic settlers came from Anglian and Saxon regions of continental Europe, within the modern territories of Holland, Southern Denmark, and Western Germany. Some of the settlers could use a runic alphabet to carve brief messages, mostly on wooden sticks, but writing was not used for Old English historical or literary material until the conversion to Christianity, when manuscript technology entered from Rome and Ireland."

"After Latin learning came in with Christianity, the Anglo-Saxons produced academic and scientific works of remarkable quality for this period of European history, but the small intellectual establishment was quite fragile and often had to restart practically from scratch after Viking invasions that devastated monastic libraries. The most successful Viking invasions established a Scandinavian territory in northern England, and we find Norwegian kings like Eric Bloodaxe ruling in English cities like York. The Scandinavians eventually blended in, making important contributions to the English language (for example, nouns like skirt and keel and pronouns like they, them)."

"The power of the Anglo-Saxons was finally broken in 1066 AD by the Normans, who might almost be regarded as Vikings, since they came originally from Denmark, though after settling on the French coast they had adopted French customs and a dialect of the French language. The Norman invasion of king William I (a.k.a. the Conqueror) established a strong beachhead in Southern England. Sporadic resistance elsewhere was eventually crushed through advanced military technology involving moats and stone castles (Anglo-Saxon castles or halls were made of wood)."

"After this period, Anglo-Saxon elements of English culture survive primarily in the working class, while French and Latin elements predominate in aristocratic circles. The animals tended by working-class herders, for example, tended to have Germanic names (cow, lamb, pig), while the finished products served up on the aristocratic table had names derived from French (beef, mutton, pork). Important elements of Anglo-Saxon law were incorporated into English law, however."
(Source: Article, "The Anglo Saxons", Brown University Dept. of English, Providence, RI.)

So what effect did all this have on the language of Britain? The following examples illustrate the effects using the scripture, Luke 1:1. [Spaces indicated by underlines _ represent alphabetic symbols unavailable in Roman fonts.]

Old English (Anglo-Saxon - c1000):

(Luke 1:1) for_am de witodlice manega _ohton _ara _inga race geendebyrdan _e on us gefyllede synt.

Middle English (Wycliffe - c1380):

(Luke 1:1) Forso _e for many men enforsiden to ordeyne _e tellyng of _ingis, whiche ben fillyd in vs

Early Modern English (KJV - 1611):

(Luke 1:1) Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,

Present Day English (NIV - 1973):

(Luke 1:1) Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us,
[Source: Polyglot Bible (the Gospel of St Luke), Mark Davies, Dept. of Foreign Languages, Illinois State Univ., Normal, IL.]

People living only 300 years apart would find it, at the least very difficult, and more often, utterly impossible to understand the language or comprehend the text of another era, even within their own land.

Even within the OE period, words changed, as the following glossary shows:

A

abandon--anforlætan; forlætan; ofgiefan (5)
accomplish--fordian; fremman
adorn--bywan; fægrian; frætwan; ge-frætwan; glengan gyrwan
advise--læran; ge-læran; rædan
afflict--bysigian; gedrefan
affliction--myrdu; ni_, m
after--æfter; ofer
afterwards (adv)--æfter; eft
again--eft; ongean
against--on; ongean
alien--ellorgæst; el_eodig
also--eac; eac swa; eac swelce (swa); swelce eac
always, adv.--a; awa; æfre
among--betweox, betwux; ongemang
ancient--eald; gamol
and--ac; and; ond; eac; ge
announce--abeodan, sv 2; beodan;
another--elra; oder
answer (vb)--answarian; andwyrdan (+dat); oncwedan
anything--awiht, n.; owiht
army--fyrd; here; prass, m
arrange--endebyrdan; gefadian; ge-logian
arrogance--byldu; ofermod; ricceter
ask--ascian; acsian; biddan; frignan (3)
assembly--mædd, n; medelstede
await--abidan (sv 1); bidan; gebidan
awaken--aweccan; onwæcan
(Source: Modern English to Old English Vocabulary by William Schipper, Memorial Univ., St John's, Newfoundland.)

A language can be affected by other existing or previous languages, even when there is no invasion or oppression by one over the other. So, while Anglo/Saxon absorbed a few Celtic words from the conquered natives of Britain, and a fairly large number of words from the Latin and Greek of the Roman Empire, the resulting English vocabulary has been affected by Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, the Slavic languages (notably Russian, but also Serbo-Croatian, Czech and Polish), the Oriental languages (Arabic, Hebrew and Aramaic), Chinese, Japanese, the Indian languages of North, South and Central America, and the West Indies, plus native languages of Australia, Polynesia, and Africa. We are probably unaware of just how great that influence is, because, while only 25 percent of our vocabulary is from the Anglo/Saxon, nearly 90 percent of our conversations utilize only that 25 percent of our total vocabulary. In other words, most of our verbs, pronouns, conjunctions, articles, and the most frequently used nouns, adjectives and adverbs are of Anglo/Saxon origin.

"Separated by a Common Language"

It has been said that the American and British people are "one people separated by a common language". This is not a "new" thing. "The oldest Anglo-Saxon records indicate an early division into Northumbrian and Mercian, both stemming from Anglian; West Saxon, coming from the language of the Saxons; and Kentish, from that of the Jutes. By the time of the Norman conquest in 1066 the three main divisions of English--Northern, Midland, and Southern--are perceptible. These divisions continue today in British English, despite the creation of a somewhat artificial "King's English" or "Received Standard", based on the speech of the cultivated classes of London."
(Source: "A Historical Sketch of the English Language", by Dr. Mario Pei, Professor Emeritus of Romance Philology, Columbia University, consultant for "New Webster's Dictionary of the English Language, Encyclopedic Edition.)

This variety of dialects increased with the colonization of America, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand. Today, the two main divisions are between "British" English and "American" English. Can differences in dialect hamper effective communication? To answer that, perhaps we should consider the following lists of contemporary "English" words. Note that these are standard words, not slang.

British--American:

kerb--curb
bonnet--(car)hood
hood--(car)top
spanner--wrench
petrol--gas
lorry--truck
windscreen--windshield
trafficator--directional sign
traffic circus--traffic circle
maize--corn
notice--review
cutting--clipping
joint-- (a) roast
aubergine--eggplant
biscuit--cracker
sweet--dessert
hoarding--signboard
death duty--inheritance tax
wireless--radio
telly--TV
holiday--vacation
pram--stroller
nappie--diaper
rubber--eraser

England, a country about the same size as Israel under King David, has 24 dialects. The United States, thought to have only three, actually has more than twelve, besides those of major cities. We are considering here, only one language, spoken at one time in history. English is the language of world trade, the second most spoken language in the world.

Solomon's Israel sat at the crossroads of world trade between the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. After his death, the kingdom was divided and came under an even greater influence of the nations around them. By the time the Pharisees came into existence as a political power, the Sadducean Priests had accepted the Hellenistic influence of the Greek Empires. In fact, the priest's acceptance of Greek customs and culture was a major factor in the Pharisees' rise from a class of scribes (in the time of Ezra) to a political power (long before the time of Christ).

Some quote the Pharisees as having declared that "learning the Greek language was worse than eating pig's flesh", but the Pharisees at their greatest, numbered only a few thousand in a land of several million Jews. They were a political power, much as the "conservative religious" are today in America, but they did not constitute a majority of the population. Their influence was of greatest effect in and around Jerusalem. The Herodians (King Herod's supporters) were even more Hellenistically oriented than the priestly class. The Pharisees were more popular with the general population than either the Herodians or the Levitical priests, hence, they had more support. As a scribal class, they originally had no power (in the time of Ezra). By supporting various rulers and interpreting Levitical law to make life easier for the ordinary man and woman, they rose in power, until by the 4th century AD, when Pharisaism and Judaism came to mean the same thing. That has continued until the present time. The practices which Christ and the apostles condemned, are still in existence.

Today, instead of concentrating on the teachings of Christ, some have become enamored with the culture of Judaism, even to the point of rejecting Christ and the entire New Testament. One road which some have taken to arrive at that point, has been to attempt to prove the "sacred names" doctrine by attributing errors or deliberate editorial changes to the New Testament. Sadly, some have been willing to give up the New Testament accounts, including Christ as the Messiah, in order to hang onto the "sacred names" doctrine. This is not to imply that all go to this extreme. This is not to imply that using the Hebrew "names" is wrong or leads to apostasy. It is simply a statement of what some have done. What started for some, as topical study, became a change in religions from Christianity to Judaism (i.e. Pharisaism).

Languages change. Word meanings change. Pronunciation changes. Spelling, meanings and pronunciation can vary in the same language on the same day, between two communities less than 100 miles apart.
Another aspect of language which hasn't been discussed is "the Great Vowel Shift". "Between the Chaucerian and the Elizabethan periods (1300's to early 1600's), English vowel sounds were radically transformed, though little of that phonetic transformation was reflected in the spelling. Old English vowels, both long and short, were for the most part "pure" vowel sounds, without the dipthongal glide that characterizes our so-called "long" vowels of today (in the alphabet pronunciation of today, a, e, i, o, u are diphthongs, consisting of a basic sound preceded or followed by an on- or off-glide, with the sole possible exception of e, which some American linguists insist is iy; the other are pronounced respectively as ey, ay, ow, yu). The transformation was achieved in several distinct stages over a period of centuries."
(Source: "A Historical Sketch of the English Language", op. cit.)

William Tyndale began translating about 1525 AD and the King James version was completed in 1611. Using the current vowel pronunciation, YaHWeH (assuming a, and e are correct) would be pronounced yaw-way, but using the former vowel pronunciation, it would be yea-wee. Since the "vowel shift" was taking place at the same time as the translation of the Bible, we can only guess at which vowel pronunciation the translators had in mind.

 

Names Index / Next